Catholic Education Week

MICHAEL CHESSER, DIRECTOR OF CATHOLIC MISSION & MERCY ETHOS

Catholic Education Week, which ran this year from Sunday 12 March to Sunday 19 March 2023, was an opportunity for all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne to celebrate their Catholic identity, the pivotal role they play within their local community and the strength of the sector.

This theme for Catholic Education Week 2023 was: Forming lives of faith, hope and love in the light of Christ.

The week coincides with the feast day of St Patrick with a special celebration Mass on St Patrick’s Day Friday 17 March at the Cathedral.

The Young Speakers Colloquium for senior secondary students was also held straight after the Mass of St Patrick for Schools. Secondary students walked from St Patrick’s Cathedral to the Catholic Leadership Centre for lunch and guest speaker Fr Rob Galea.

As part of the Catholic Education Week, there was a Creative Arts Exhibition.

The Creative Arts Exhibition showcases the wonderful artwork of primary and secondary students in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. It reflects their creativity in a broad range of impressive and inspiring works across various disciplines, including painting, photography, sculpture, fashion and film.

On the 17th of March, a few selected Year 10 students accompanied Mr Chesser and Ms Donato to the St. Patricks Cathedral in East Melbourne for the annual St Patrick’s day mass. Catholic primary and secondary schools from the Melbourne Archdiocese were in attendance, the mass was celebrated by Archbishop Comensoli and other concelebrates. Following the mass, we were able to introduce ourselves and partake in a photo with the Archbishop.

Next, we walked down to the Catholic Leadership Centre (CLC) for a special lunch and to hear the guest speaker, Father Rob Galea, a parish priest from Bendigo. His story was inspiring, speaking about his troubled life in Malta as a teenager before deciding to follow God and become a priest. Father Rob is also an accomplished singer-song writer who has sung for the Pope and will take part in the World Youth Day in Lisbon Portugal, later this year. Father Rob also told us that as Christians and Catholics, we don’t follow a religion but a person, Jesus Christ. He connected with us and spoke about his passion and love for God, he explained to us that everyone is ‘messed up’ in their own way, and it was okay to acknowledge that. Father Rob also shared with us the importance of praying to Jesus for guidance.

We want to thank Mr Chesser and Ms Donato for giving us this opportunity to partake in the mass and the conference. Thank you for taking us to the venues and giving us your time.

From a Year 7 Parent

MEGAN CUSACK

Change is always confronting, especially when starting a new school, let alone one that is also transitioning to co-ed education. For our family however, the transition to St Aloysius was seamless. The boys were warmly embraced by the school community from day one. They made new friends, settled into a route surprisingly quickly, participated in all the sports and languages on offer, and from an academic view they have excelled in areas we didn’t even know they enjoyed. The bonus is that as a family too we have made new friends as we have participated in the host of events made available to us to meet new families – especially at the Community Connect bowling and pizza evening where our boys introduced us to their new friends and the parents. The school and its community has exceeded all of our expectations, and we look forward to the boys continuing to thrive at St Al’s!